Editorial news: we have decided to stop reviewing MP3 releases. Please do not send any discs with MP3 releases. Just send me an e-mail with a link and a short description, so people can download it. The amount of releases pile up every week and I can no longer devote time to MP3s. Whatever you see coming in the next few weeks are the last ones. Please do not send anymore. Also: releases that do not contain the original artwork will most likely be no longer reviewed. The real thing is necessary for a real judgment. If you wish to send us not the real thing, please contact us first. <vital@vitalweekly.net>
SANDRO CODAZZI (CD by Black Fading) *
1000SCHOEN – YOSHIWARA (2CD by Nitkie) *
FIRST HUMAN FERRO – STARDUST (CD by Nitkie) *
FIRST HUMAN FERRO – HOMO SHARGEY (CD by New Nihilism, Requiem Productions and Triangle Records)
THE SOUND ECOLOGY: RANGE (CD by Nitkie)
FACTOR X – 022 (CD by Monochrome Vision) *
MYSTERY HEARSAY – FLESH TOMB (CD by Monochrome Vision) *
ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE – AMA_ZONE 1: BLACK WATERS (CD by Monochrome Vision) *
SIMON WHETHAM & FRIENDS – MEDITATIONS ON LIGHT (CD by Monochrome Vision)
MIXTURIZER – SIETE PATOLOGIAS (CD by R.O.N.F. Records)
JASMINA MASCHINA – ALPHABET DREAM NOISE (CD by Staubgold) *
STEVE BERESFORD & STEPHEN FLINN & DAVE TUCKER – INK ROOM (CD by Creative Sources Recordings) *
JEAN-PHILIPPE ANTOINE – NOUVELLES MUSIQUES ANCIENNES (CD by Firework Edition Records) *
KNITTING BY TWILIGHT – WEATHERING (CD by It’s Twilight Time) *
RICHARD GINNS – SEA CHANGE (CD by Slow Flow Records) *
KOJI ASANO – SOLSTICE ECLIPSE (CD by Solstice) *
DMDN – AGONISTES (LP by Supreme Tools Supplies)
PHURPA – TROWO PHURNAG CEREMONY (2LP by Editions Mego)
BEE MASK – ELEGY FOR BEACH FRIDAY (2LP by Spectrum Spools)
TEMPORAL MARAUDER – MAKES YOU FEEL (LP by Spectrum Spools)
ROBIN FOX – MORE IMPOSSIBE FUTURES (7″ by Bocian Records)
MACHINEFABRIEK & GARETH DAVIS – MY FUNNY VALENTINE/OH DOCTOR JESUS (5″ by Brian Records)
JLIAT – THE PLANETS (CDR by Jliat)
DANIEL SPICER – ENGRUNTLED (CDR by The Slightly Off Kilter Label)
ANTHONY MURPHY TRIO – BLOOD BLISTER (3″CDR & 5″ by The Slightly Off Kilter
Label)
MARTIN PRESTON – VAPOUR (CDR by The Slightly Off Kilter Label)
MASAKI SATSU INTENT (CDR by Hipsterdeath)
DOODSHOOFD – STRIJDT! (2CDR by Skumrex)
MATTHIEU SALADIN – DESERTS (CDR by W.m.o/r) *
DWORKIN & FOWLER – RHYTHMIC FACT (CDR by W.m.o/r)
CANNIBAL MOVIE – AVORIO (cassette by Sound Of Cobra)
NOSESOUL – N (cassette by Collezione Del Silenzio)
MARIBOR – X (cassette by Collezione Del Silenzio)
GIANLUCA BECUZZI – B (cassette by Collezione Del Silenzio)
SANDRO CODAZZI (CD by Black Fading)
About an hour before I left for a week away, this CD arrived. Actually more arrived, but such words as ‘electro-pop’ made me copy this onto my ipod so I could listen to it in a more relaxed atmosphere. Sandro Codazzi, born in 1978, is inspired by German pioneers of the seventies, Italo disco, Commodore 64 music and analog synthesizers. Now while I think that this is hardly the kind of music that fits Vital Weekly, I must (secretly? hardly, as I am writing about it here) admit that I quite enjoyed this. As I was cooking meals last week for a larger group, music like this was playing all day. House, techno, electro – anything with a nice beat. Codazzi uses also a lot of vocoder vocals, New Order like bass sounds and fine hooks. What can I say? Nothing for Vital Weekly? Perhaps so indeed, but do I like this? Hell, yes, I do. The best pop stuff in ages. (FdW)
Address: http://www.blackfading.com
000SCHOEN – YOSHIWARA (2CD by Nitkie) *
FIRST HUMAN FERRO – STARDUST (CD by Nitkie) *
FIRST HUMAN FERRO – HOMO SHARGEY (CD by New Nihilism, Requiem Productions and Triangle Records)
THE SOUND ECOLOGY: RANGE (CD by Nitkie)
Back in Vital Weekly 565 1000Schoen’s ‘Yoshiwara’ CD was reviewed by NM and he wrote: “”Yoshiwara” is also the name of a prostitute area of the 17 th century’s Tokyo just like it was the name of the nightclub in Fritz Lang’s movie “Metropolis” (1927) where the main character Maria worked as an exotic dancer. This very interesting album by German composer 1000Sch¯en could well be the soundtrack for a 21 st century’s edition of the Fritz Lang’s legendary futuristic movie. Taking its starting point in the world of ambience the intense work circulates in sonic worlds of buzzing noise drones and otherworldly spheres of melodic beauty. Thus being both dramatic and harmonic in expression the album changes between short tracks and long conceptual tracks with the third track (all tracks are untitled!) clocking 26+ minutes. “Yoshiwara” is a remarkable work of experimental ambient. With these three very different albums, Kafue Systeme, demonstrates its wide approach to electronic sound, and the musical quality is in all three cases impressively high!” In this re-issue the tracks do have titles and I can add that 1000Schoen is the project of Helge Siehl, the third member of Maeror Tri, who went solo when the others became Troum. This re-issue has a bonus CD with twenty-four minutes, two tracks with some more excellent excursions into the world of drone music. Very much along the lines of Maeror Tri/Troum, both the disc that was recorded in 2006 and the bonus disc (no recording date). 1000Schoen doesn’t have the same recognition yet as Troum, but its about time that changes.
From the Ukrain hails First Human Ferro, of whom
I never heard and his ‘Stardust’ CD is dedicated to the first man in space, this year 50 years ago. Among all the space talk, the only thing I recognized was however Neil Armstrong ramble about small steps. The link between electronic music and space deserves a lengthy book, I should think, from ‘Forbidden Planet’ to, well, perhaps anything from that until CDs like this. Lots of synthesizers obviously on this release, which apparently was six years in production. This one only drifts partly into the world of cosmic music, with not that much rolling thunderous arpeggio’s, but stays more in the safe world of drone and atmospherics, ambient with the A. There is also touches towards the more dark world of gothic music, due to the fact of heavenly choirs of female voices, which weren’t necessarily well spend on me. The space theme runs through the album, but not always in every track. Maybe it was used to sell the album to celebrate Yuri Gagarin’s space travel? A pretty decent album, I thought. Not the best of his kind, for it lacks that necessary thing that makes it highly original, but maybe with great care for detail.
Lo and behold, two days later I receive another CD release by First Human Ferro, with more space is the place. As far as I can judge there is no such direct thematic approach to this one as with the other (although the press text talks about some engineer from Russia, but there is no evidence in the music), but the music is likewise quality. This one seems altogether more eerie, dwelling heavily on the sounds of organs, played in long waving and sustaining sounds, drenched at times in too much reverb. There are no voice samples from flight control on this one. Like with the other one, I thought this was another fine example of atmospheric ambient drone music of a more darker side of the moon. Still not the most original but pretty consistent.
I had a small discussion with one of our reviewers about compilations, which we were both not very fond of. Without saying much about the quality of the music on ‘Sound Ecology: Range’, one could wonder why this was released. All ten artists (Mathieu Ruhlamn, Yannick Dauby, Michael Northam, Eric LaCasa, John Grzinih, Francisco Lopez, Jeph Jerman, Ralf Wehowsky, Christopher McFall, Murmer) have to one extend or another some sort of following, be it large and not as large, so why put these on yet another compilation? Alright, so Niktie is a Russian label, and perhaps these people are lesser known there, but still. The interesting aspect here is that all artists devote a few words to ‘sound ecology’ and what it means to them. That makes an interesting read, as they all various views on the matter. City sounds, birds, voice material, and sources unknown: they are all heavily processed, using the latest computer techniques in the best sense of the modern day musique concrete composer. All top stuff. But then, that’s something we already knew from the composers. So: why? (FdW)
Address: http://nitkie.fatcat.ru
Address: http://trianglerecords.blogspot.com/
FACTOR X – 022 (CD by Monochrome Vision)
MYSTERY HEARSAY – FLESH TOMB (CD by Monochrome Vision)
ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE – AMA_ZONE 1: BLACK WATERS (CD by Monochrome Vision)
SIMON WHETHAM & FRIENDS – MEDITATIONS ON LIGHT (CD by Monochrome Vision)
Monochrome Vision works with the ‘old’ guys. People that have been around since the 80s, sometimes disappeared and always came back. Moving from cassettes to CDs, and in black and white covers. Shaun Robert started Factor X in 1983 already, following another start in 1979. Throughout the 80s he has released a great number of tapes and for whatever reason ‘022’ from 1985 was a particular favorite of his, and perhaps of Monochrome Vision. In those days he used two tape decks to play sounds from, and record them on the third tape-deck. A method we call ‘ping pong’ and which leaves, when repeated considerable tape hiss. That seems to be removed from this release. Factor X uses a bunch cheap casio sampling keyboards, with that one second sampling time, but which could be transposed down and added with basic sound effects made a decent noise. A fine reminder of those old, and happy days this is. I am not sure if I heard ‘022’ back in the days, but surely it reminds me of other Factor X releases. Lo-fi, at times too long, but the cut-up collage of sounds and spoken word is actually quite nice. I wouldn’t opt for a complete CD set of his entire career, but every now and then: sure, why not?
Whereas Factor X was even bootlegged in recent years – always a mark of long lasting quality – Mystery Hearsay wasn’t. No lesser quality however from this hometaper – as the lingo of the day was – also known as Mike Honeycutt. He went on to produce other things later on, such as Mystery X, Mystery Iguana, and part of Wilt, but Mystery Hearsay seemed to have gathered dust. This CD, in fact a re-issue of a tape release called ‘Flesh Tomb’ plus bonus material from a net release from 2007 (which is which is not clear from the cover). Without wanting to say much about the quality of the music, the quality of the recording is of an entirely nature than the Factor X one, i.e. something that seems at least more professional. One of those typical mid-80s things was the arrival of what was called ‘ambient industrial’: music that was too loud to fully downright ambient, but also not loud enough to be classified as industrial. Hence ambient industrial and that’s exactly the field of Mystery Hearsay’s music. Lots of guitar/synth manipulations, along with percussive, metallic sounds and tons of sound effects to manipulate them. Like with a lot of these 80s things its not the composition that counts but the mood created, so it sometimes gets off the rails and takes a bit too much time to be fully interesting. But this is another great reminder of the young FdW at home listening to tapes, and one who fully forgot that Mystery Hearsay was actually a great band. Long forgotten, but thankfully resurrected.
Someone who was never ‘away’ and who is not really, as far as I know, from the 80s, but more from the 90s and onwards is Slavek Kwi, better known as Artificial Memory Trace. Never made it really big, and his releases are wide and far apart. This particular new release is, as you might have guessed, about sounds captured in the Amazone, where Kwi was in 2007. Originally for an installation, but now brought back to stereo. The cover details pretty in depth what we are hearing and that there is hardly any form of sound processing going on. What we hear is what we get. Artificial Memory Trace (along with Toy Bizarre one of the few guys who still hangs on to his ‘band name’ thing) creates an excellent sound scape of animal sounds (birds, insects but also fish), water sounds and basically the entire environment. While there is not much sound processing, Artificial Memory Trace uses extensive layering of sound events which makes up a strong listening session. While marveling over this beauty I was thinking: Goddamn, why is this guy so unknown?
Simon Whetham I would definitely classify as now, being someone from after 2000, and there is place for him too on Monochrome Vision, whose every fourth or so release is by someone who is ‘now’ and not ‘then’. His double CD has two works that were commissioned by painter Kathryn Thomas while the second CD is basically a remix CD by friends of source material from those two works. The paintings are inspired by the ‘infinity of the cosmos’. In Vital Weekly 687 I already reviewed a sort of first version – ur-version if you will – from the two pieces that are now on this CD. The first piece, ‘Lightspace’ should be played in a big space (where do I find one?), while the second one, ‘Darkerspace’ has no such restrictions. I played both at home. Like ‘Lightyears’, the previous release, there is a bit of piano in ‘Lightspace’, which brings it back to influences of modern composers, along with lots of string sounds. I am not sure where he got these violin like sounds, as Whetham is best known as a composer of music dealing with field recordings. removed are the Nasa flight control sounds and a fine ambient piece remains, and one that I think is better than ‘Lightyears’. The other one is, as said, ‘Darkerspace’ and this is the more moody piece obviously. Its not easy to say wether those strings are pitched down or perhaps something else. This piece is a total contrast to the other one and as such it works pretty well.
And then there is the remix project, the ‘friends’ part of this. I think I talked about this before and I’ll do it again: I am not sure for whom project like these are. Other of course than the musicians involved and give them something to do. None of these twelve artists do something that stand out very much from the original (either the two pieces on disc one or the original disc from years ago), except perhaps for Scanner who adds beats to it. That’s it: add beats, make a singer song writer strum along out of it, reggae, heavy metal, HWN, something like it, but not make it more of the same. In the old marketing techniques you had The Orb remixing U2, since U2’s record company wanted to look cool and sell records to the fans of The Orb – that is what remixes should be all about. But these eleven ‘deconstructions’, as they are called on the cover, are more ‘reconstructions’, ‘variations on a theme’ than thorough remixes. Nice enough, but who for? I just heard the remix by the artist himself and that was alright for me. Included are Fourm, Richard Lainhart, Philippe Petit, Mise_en_scene, Maile Colbert, Scanner, Christopher McFall, David Wells, Iris Garrelfs, Yann Novak, Lawrence English and John Kannenberg. A nice bonus. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monochromevision.ru
MIXTURIZER – SIETE PATOLOGIAS (CD by R.O.N.F. Records)
Seven tracks, what might be a noble attempt but still somehow is bourgeoisie – mention of extremes and “soul” mention of a “from” a “to” – Marxism? – “Intense Noise album, seven tracks dealing with sickness, abstractness, violence, insanity. Purely analog executed, effect units, machines, cheap odd mics, feedback, metal junk, voice, body and soul… Variated, ranging from lo-fi to brightness, from dynamic to static, from detailed to brutalist, from chaotic to structured, hopeless, restless, undogmatic, straight to the sick point..”. Thus Zizek inputs both his philosophy of Violence (Adorno’s arsonisity) together with Bartleby’s nihilism..? Yet what lurks is either a national socialism or many happy hours in the light bulb
factory… unfortunately for Mr Z the pace of i-history means that before he can hit ENTER (the old ink drying) things are not… to vary, implicates Hegelianism again, Noise as new Stalinism-lite just wont do, its just not “Spring” enough… Though I like this work and I do, the beautiful stuttering rumble and feedback, yes soulful, only a noise of completeness, which no longer is the empty vessel for, not this then but yes…… – HNW can begin to conceptualize- which after all said and done is the only alternative to religion and rock and roll. Run the whole thing through a low pass filter, digitally – cut the bit rate and release on mp3. (jliat)
Address: http://www.ronfrecords.com/
JASMINA MASCHINA – ALPHABET DREAM NOISE (CD by Staubgold)
The career of Jasmina Guffond, also known as Jasmina Maschina, started with the duo Minit, playing at first some kind of electronic drone music, but later on with a more pop like version there of, and an excellent collaboration with Osso Exotico and then a solo album under the current moniker, ‘The Demolition Series’ (see Vital Weekly 618), and now a second one also on staubgold. In the meantime I saw Jasmina Maschina play live and decided to like it even more, while at the same time I realize its still not really my cup of tea. Maschina plays guitar and sings, just like in the good folk tradition, but at the same time it is of course not really folk music. Maschina adds elements of noise in ‘Noise Is Noise And Feelings Are Feelings’ and most other songs have traces of minimal music to them, through endless strumming and sustaining drone like sounds. I think I liked this one even more than the previous, but perhaps that’s because I saw the concert which sometimes helps. Nice psychedelic (reminding this particular reviewer of The Use Of Ashes), with an experimental layer over it all, but still quite based in rock music, and at the same time not rock at all. Very very nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staubgold.com
STEVE BERESFORD & STEPHEN FLINN & DAVE TUCKER – INK ROOM (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
Of these three performers me thinks that Steve Beresford is the best known one. Best known as an improviser with Derek Bailey, Alterations, Portsmouth Sinfonia but also The Flying Lizards. His instruments are piano, trumpet, euphonium, double bass and toys, but on this recording just credits ‘electronics’ to his name. Drummer/percussionist Stephen Flinn plays, along with Z’EV, in the Cutmen, but also with Jaap Blonk, Lol Coxhill, Phil Minton and other. Dave Tucker was a member of The Fall in the early 80s, but after moving to London he is involved with improvised music, which he serves with his electric guitar. ‘Ink Room’ is a spontaneous improvisation which comes unedited. Maybe cut here and there to mark the seven pieces, but nothing more it seems. This results is some highly vibrant music, bouncing roughly in all corners of the room. Tucker’s spikey guitar sounds, Beresford’s electronics loud and noisy at times, soft and careful at other times, while Flinn seems to be the more traditional improviser, holding matters together with loosely played sounds, but rather conventional it seems. An excellent ride this one. Quite energetic and never a dull second around here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.creativesourcesrec.com
JEAN-PHILIPPE ANTOINE – NOUVELLES MUSIQUES ANCIENNES (CD by Firework Edition Records)
Here is another one of those big questionmark releases by Firework Edition Records. I have no idea who Jean-Philippe Antoine is, other than that he lives and works in Paris. Nor do I think I grasped the idea of his new ancient music. Seven pieces, of which four seems to deal with ancient music, from Bach to Correa de Arauxo and Joseph Zawinul, which seems to be played on a guitar or bass guitar, which may or may not be processed. I have no idea what to make of this. It sounds alright but is not really my cup of tea. The other three pieces span 2/3 of the entire disc and two of them deal with people humming and field recordings, while one seems to be made of solely field recordings. These are strange pieces too, with ‘Superfredons’ barely audible and ‘Superfredons Canonuses En Jungle’ a more musical version of that piece, and more audible. These are the two pieces dealing with humming, and ‘Gouttes De Fraicheur’ being about sounds from all sorts of boats. How these three are linked to the other four is quite a mystery to me. I must admit I liked the trio better than the quartet, but the whole disc is a bit too alien for me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fireworkeditionrecords.com
KNITTING BY TWILIGHT – WEATHERING (CD by It’s Twilight Time)
Every now and then I am happy to receive music by Knitting By Twilight, even when, objectively, it should be noted that this music is hardly in the right place in Vital Weekly. More and more Knitting By Twilight is a solo project by John Orsi, with occasional help of Manny Silva and Mike Marando. On this new release, they are on the move again. Whilst the previous ‘Riding The Wayback’ (see Vital Weekly 687) was a bit more rock like and improvised, structures on this new one are more tight and less rock-like and more dwelling on percussive sounds. Orsi plays most of the percussive bits, very well present in all eight tracks, as well as bits of keyboard, while the two others fill in with layered drones of guitars. Throughout the music is very vibrant, minimal in approach, with ethnic like drumming and dark, present drones. Perhaps, this is the release that brings Knitting By Twilight more into the realms of Vital Weekly? I quite enjoyed this one, perhaps even the best I heard from them so far. (FdW)
Address: http://www.itstwilightmusic.com
RICHARD GINNS – SEA CHANGE (CD by Slow Flow Records)
Another new name on the horizon of ambient/microsound, being one Richard Ginn. There is not a lot of information to go by, in fact no information at all. Its not easy to say what he does, to decipher his sources that is. My best guess is that its a lot of field recordings, being processed and all that, along with more processed guitar and piano sounds. Maybe the field recordings all deal with sea-side sounds, but I can’t be too sure about that. Overall the music has a somewhat low end texture, like from an old cassette or the faded image of a sepia photograph. The field recordings are quite on top of things. Its these small differences that set the music of Ginns just a little bit apart from the rest of this scene, say the whole 12K posse, but I wonder if its enough to be really apart from the rest. While the whole thing is crafted with care, it still lacks a bit of originality to be fully interesting. For now, if this is his debut, its all quite alright, but Ginns needs to find a form of his own. (FdW)
Address: http://slowflowrec.web.fc2.com/
KOJI ASANO – SOLSTICE ECLIPSE (CD by Solstice)
After a four year hiatus of silence (?) Koji Asano released late last year ‘Galaxies’ (see Vital Weekly 762), a work of field recordings. ‘Solstice Eclipse’ has no reference to field recordings, or in fact any other instruments, but what stayed from ‘Galaxies’ is the fact that the volume stays on one level, and that changes are rather minimal. Its hard to say what that sound source is, it sounded to me like a bunch of ‘dirty’ recordings of organs, found on a bunch of hissy tapes, which are cut into loops of varying length and then put together into this work that lasts 48 minutes. Only towards the end the music is faded out and the volume drops. It was an alright sort of work, nothing special I thought and perhaps more of the sort that people release on CDRs, rather than CDs. Unlike the previous, which last an hour and which could have lasted any length, I think this work is probably a bit too long for what it does or is supposed to be doing. A very consistent and probably conceptual musical work, but not his best. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kojiasano.com
DMDN – AGONISTES (LP by Supreme Tools Supplies)
Somewhere in this HQ which I call home, I have folder with ancient letters, very early ones, when I wrote to people who ran cassette labels. The very first letter, if you open up the folder, is from a guy named Sjak, who had a label called A Tapes, dealing with punk music. In the second or so letter he tells me he changed the name of his label to Midas Tapes, later Midas Music, and then to Supreme Tools Supplies for his more rocky/noisy agenda. I am still in contact with Sjak, after more than thirty years and if you are ever in Tilburg, The Netherlands visit his Antenne record store. Somewhere in the late 80s, early 90s Sjak started calling himself DMDN (which is still his DJ name, preceded by DJ of course) and did some pretty intense cassettes of noise. ‘Agonistes’ was a tape released by GROSS in 1994 and for reasons I don’t know (yet. I will ask him next time I see him), he dug out that tape and released it on his own Supreme Tools Supplies label in an edition of 260 copies. Well, actually, knowing him pretty well, its obvious that he likes this release so much that he deems it worth putting out on vinyl, his preferred choice of format. There was a time that noise was my daily bread. Those were the days that I saw Sjak a lot more, but when I played this record today, I thought that I couldn’t figure out how he created his own noise music. I assume short wave radio and synthesizers, some digital delay effects and lots, lots of layering. Noise is no longer my cup of coffee, but every now and then I like to play some of that, and mainly, like a fine old chap, from somebody I know and love. Merzbow from time to time, and then also ‘Agonistes’ is right up my alley. If you like Merzbow’s noise onslaughts, then this is surely one of those records you like to. Relentless, loud, vicious, distorted. Play loud I’d say, but then you might have guessed that already. A most welcome re-issue. Now for his other solo stuff! (FdW)
Address: http://www.antenne-tilburg.nl
PHURPA – TROWO PHURNAG CEREMONY (2LP by Editions Mego)
Once you are up there, as a label whose taste sets the tone of the day, you can get away with it. That’s at least what I was thinking when I was playing this record by a Russian band called Phurpa, led by Alexei Tegin. He studied traditional ritual music of Egypt, Iran and Tibet, of Buddhist and Bon liturgies. It would be too far to repeat all the historical information Mego provided, but Phurpa uses all the instruments of Tibet such as the dunchen, gyaling, silnyen, bub, damaru, kanling, nga and shang as well as the ‘rgyud-skad tradition of Tantric overtone chanting’. I was thinking that Mego must have gone insane, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Stephen O’Malley writes a few words, and that makes it more clearer, as I can see it for him to be a logical extension of what he does with drone music, a kind of ritual. Now, over the years I wrote about ritual music before, and one of my points would be it is hard to understand if you are not part of the culture where the ritual comes from, and perhaps there is also a skeptical side of me that never easily believes these things to be genuine. But somehow, I must admit, that this was all very convincing and while I didn’t engage in any sort of buddhist thing while listening (but my more usual activities of staring out of the window, reading a few pages, listening and thinking about the music – all of which surely is not the right thing to do) it was all strongly captivating. Very dark, all this chanting and probably indeed best enjoyed in complete darkness. (FdW)
Address: http://www.editionsmego.com
BEE MASK – ELEGY FOR BEACH FRIDAY (2LP by Spectrum Spools)
TEMPORAL MARAUDER – MAKES YOU FEEL (LP by Spectrum Spools)
On Spectrum Spools, Mego’s new imprint for cosmic music, a follow up to ‘Canzoni Dal Laboratoria Del Silenzio Cosmico’ by Chris Madak, also known as Bee Mask. He plays synthesizers, percussion, piano, guitar, tape, electronics and max/msp. he’s been around for years and has released a whole bunch of limited edition releases on cassettes and CDRs – say when cosmic doodling wasn’t as popular as it is now. But no doubt due to the success of his previous record for Spectrum Spools, he is now invited to compile a record with the best of the old days, spread out over two slabs of vinyl. It sees a continuation of the previous record in a way that Bee Mask is not your pure arpeggio kraut meister, but expands his view more, to the works of modern electronic music, the Lovely music catalogue of David Behrman and Gordon Mumma. Stretching out drones like sustaining tunes, with small intervals of oscillators running wild and what seems to be percussive sound, also created on synthesizers. Psychedelica meets the planet of the apes. An excellent choice, me thinks, and hopefully another successful release for Bee Mask with more to follow. This is some mighty fine mood music. Interstellar overdrive.
The other new record is by Temporal Marauder. I read the entire story on the press release, penned by one Michael Ferrer and its crap. Some guy named Jean Logarin, who did this stuff in the seventies, passed the reels on to Guerino Raglani, uncle of Joseph Raglani and he got the band name and thought of titles. Ja ja ja. “And to those who will inevitably question if Logarin himself is real, the only straight answer is that we have his music. How could he not be real?” Obviously. So Joseph Raglani did another record as Temporal Marauder and for the first time its not the sort of cosmic music excursion for Spectrum Spools. Or perhaps: not quite. At the basis of the pieces lie a bunch of drum machines, which are quite fast and on top, synthesizers do their freak out, but its all a bit too weird to be fully downright neo-cosmos music. A bit too fucked up. But its nice for sure. Not much time seem to have been spend on the recording of the music, which sounds a bit dull, like captured on a cassette, but perhaps/no doubt this is intentional to make it sound ‘old’ and ‘covered with dust’. A little different than the others so far on this label and surely as nice. Despite all the nonsense. (FdW)
Address: http://www.spectrumspools.com
ROBIN FOX – MORE IMPOSSIBE FUTURES (7″ by Bocian Records)
It seems that Bocian Records only releases 7″s these days and that they have a soft spot for improvised music from down under. Following Sean Baxter’s 7″ from a month ago, here is Robin Fox, an improviser from the world of electronic music, playing laptop and on one side entirely EMS VCS3. Two pieces that sound hardly improvised, but more composed. The ‘More Impossible Futures’ on the a-side is a more introspective piece of various layers of electronics sounds, which are put together in a rather gentle way. ‘Drift Compression’ on the other, the EMS piece, is something of a beast: loud, vicious, bouncing in all directions, sharp and angular. Two excellent sides and to me it seems that Fox composed both with the idea of a 7″ in mind, and not present them as outtakes of a longer whole, which is sometimes the case with these sort of things. Very nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monotyperecords.com
MACHINEFABRIEK & GARETH DAVIS – MY FUNNY VALENTINE/OH DOCTOR JESUS (5″ by Brian Records)
Jazz and me, don’t get along very well. So when I got this (as a download link, but anything for good friends, right), I thought, well, ‘My Funny Valentine’ and ‘Oh Doctor Jesus’… jazz standards… so? Machinefabriek teams up with Gareth Davis again, the clarinet player and they play these two standards. How do they succeed? That’s obviously for me hard to judge, I never heard the ‘original’, let alone any other versions – my fault obviously. But this short record, four minutes only, is actually very nice. The clarinet of Davis is slightly distorted, possible due to the processing put down by Machinefabriek. It doesn’t resemble anything remotely jazz, and that’s no doubt the whole point of this. I read on the label’s website that these standards were done a lot in the 60s and since then hardly. This brings these standards to an entirely new level. ‘No jazz harmed in this record’. (FdW)
Address: http://machinefabriek.bandcamp.com/
JLIAT – THE PLANETS (CDR by Jliat)
Finally, I should think, Jliat does the final and most logical step in his conceptual work into silence. He did already a whole body of research in how silence is digitally translated, which resulted in a CDrom which lasts days and days to play (see review in Vital Weekly 782), with thousands of short files, which are all different. But the next logical conclusion is to release a blank CDR. The CDR as an art object. Jliat choose ‘The Planets’ as a theme. Not the Gustav Holst version remixed, but graphically on the surface each planet in its corresponding size to eachother, with the entire disc surface being the sun. Why the planets? A take on the current en vogue cosmic music? Well, I should think so. And why blank? Simple. ‘You can’t take words into space’, as Bill Burroughs already said. Sound is the movement of air, and in space there is no air. Sometimes things are as simple as that. Excellent, conceptual idea. (FdW)
Address: http://www.jliat.com
DANIEL SPICER – ENGRUNTLED (CDR by The Slightly Off Kilter Label)
ANTHONY MURPHY TRIO – BLOOD BLISTER (3″CDR & 5″ by The Slightly Off Kilter
Label)
MARTIN PRESTON – VAPOUR (CDR by The Slightly Off Kilter Label)
Daniel Spicer’s disk has six tracks though not ‘actual’ I guess is a kind of poet, or perhaps a ‘real poet’, how would I know, here has five live performances from Brighton of spoken “poems” accompanied by minimal acoustical instruments- little gongs and chimes… Anthony Murphy’s starts with deep drone – then again readings of his poetry- against heavy reverb and echoey textures… “Hunched and needy like a baby seagull…” etc. metaphors and similes pile upon each other like slagheaps of welsh schoolchildren etc. poems of soulless loss and empty chip shops.. ? Why does this material miss the point, why is it so like what it is, is that the concerns are firstly totally selfish, in a ‘oh my life is soooooo heavy man….” It begs to have the piss taken out of it, and of course such material has, to the effect that the send up sounds better than what it addresses, the agonising triteness of (‘and I am an ant which crawls on the road…’) Alan Bennett et al – in (for those in the UK) Bellamy’s People- The Poet – Geoffrey Allerton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT5gQXZuXAM you will SEE what I mean.. Its funny to laugh at this, but what about “My angel has flown to Brazil and it makes me feel strange you know incomplete not broken because I know she will return and I will be waiting meanwhile I’m traveling North (sic) to visit my mother to try and ease her mind before it goes completely, I look through the window of the coach the sun is showing off and a hot air balloon sits like a superimposed strawberry….” I or he is not going on – enough alliteration to keep alligators happy.. Sorry I do care if you are in a shit job and your boyfriend/girl friend has left you – but this is therapy not
art, not poetry which universalizes feelings so they belong to all humanity and not someone who is living in a damp bed sit with “issues”… whose pretentiousness and sanctimonious regard for the rest of humanity is either a consequence or cause of their dilemmas… nevertheless they exist in a kind of self support network of new-age concern? So whatever I might say is irrelevant- I will be the philistine – while they flip Burgers and think of T.S. Eliot… I become the hollow man, harsh and cruel and uncaring of these poets who have genuine problems and illness to confront. But given that I sense a kind of blame on the rest of us for their condition, as if they cant sympathise for those – like the old lady passing wind on the bus- they hang on their crosses spitting and rebuking humanity,Asking for what, pity,
respect, money… and why?…
A penny for the Old Guy
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion; (Jliat) (err well not the last bit……..obviously!)
Address: http://www.slightlyoffkilterlabel.blogspot.com/
MASAKI SATSU INTENT (CDR by Hipsterdeath)
The processing of recorded samples… One obviously looped and slowed … other
artifacts of electronic processing… lots of processing, reverb panning… generating industrial, sci-fi landscapes, images, visual… at times film track music but not musak – electro Mahler maybe? For me a little too thematic… oddly reminiscent of some German Floyd influenced work of the 70s? Coming back to Mahler though, electonica maybe faces similar problems (as to the trajectory of the symphonic form within tonality…) and here the solution is a massively careful audio construction… with drum loops- track five… not my territory though I do confess to owning an Autechre CD… Though this may work, its superstructure is such that it always seems at the point of a collapse, which of course has already occurred- always looking for new ways of preserving musics “formalism” (in Neo Kantian Clemy ways)… an impossibility – because it stands on what it thinks is a transcendental position, an old metaphysics, both dangerous and identifiable with a kind of German idealism (Mahler again) which has been thoroughly eviscerated….
(jliat)
Address: http://www.hipsterdeath.bigcartel.com/product/masaki-satsu-intent
DOODSHOOFD – STRIJDT! (2CDR by Skumrex)
Two Cds of HNW – so what’s the big issue = What is peculiar is that music/sound only occupies what if the world was an apple a layer the thickness of its skin, i.e. 10 miles or so, and if – a strange if – elsewhere then not in the solar system, Mozart on Mars wouldn’t work, though Impressionist painting could be seen, though a little red, (Rothkos would still be cool) and of course sculpture should have a universal appeal.. there are after all quite a few rocks out there. Out of all the arts then music is very limited, I’m not even sure what Beethoven would sound like on Everest? Is then our atmosphere a special event for sound, something quite singular – or at least nowhere within a few trillions of miles to be found anywhere else. Is this lack of universalism a singling out – a privileging – like humanity, or is it an anomaly – a deviant (from the norm)… like humanity….. The whole of both western and eastern music – and other points on the compass seems to depend on the propagation of waves within a given set of gases at a given density…. which is very very peculiar – cosmologically. You might want water for life but you need air for what is called music. There is at least one point, not the old ‘in space no one can hear you scream’, but do you need to *listen* to HNW? Or is it possible for it to exist conceptually… ? Across the Universe…. At even a post conceptual- as at a post communication – level- plane- khora… The idea may sound (!) mad, but if not so isn’t HNW an Aporia? (jliat)
Address: http://skumrex.blogspot.com/
MATTHIEU SALADIN – DESERTS (CDR by W.m.o/r)
DWORKIN & FOWLER – RHYTHMIC FACT (CDR by W.m.o/r)
Among the historical scandals in music best known are Stravinsky’s ‘Rite Of Spring’ and Varese’s ‘Deserts’, both of them meeting public hostility. Mathieu Saladin is a french conceptual composer, who likes ideas perhaps more than music. Here he releases a disc in which we hear bits of the music, from the original premiere recording in 1954, but only those bits in which the audience is very noisy: booing, hissing, shouting, which happened mainly in the pre-recorded bits, as this Varese work is divided in orchestral bits and pre-recorded sounds. A totally strange release, but also quite captivating, like most of Saladin’s work, raising questions about scandals and about ‘new’ music. Perhaps not the sort of thing to put in your player on a daily basis, especially with the first ten minutes not much happening, but a fine art item anyway.
Which can also be said of the release by Dworkin and Fowler: another blank disc (two in a week, coincidence?), with ink on the surface of what a CDR is, what ink is, in scientific terms. Poetry no doubt. One to scare of your guests. An excellent collaboration! (FdW)
Address: http://www.mattin.org/recordings.html
CANNIBAL MOVIE – AVORIO (cassette by Sound Of Cobra)
A Cannibal Movie is a sub genre of Italian exploitation movies about cannibals in primitive areas. Its also an Italian duo on drums and an old organ. They have a tape on a new label called Sound Of Cobra, from Berlin. As you perhaps can expect this all quite psychedelic music with banging drums and clusters of organ sounds. The recording however is not really top: it sounds like everything was picked up with one microphone which was a bit too far away from the instruments, so it all sounds a bit pushed towards the back. That makes it hard to actually enjoy what’s going on, and removes any depth the music might have. That’s a pity, since perhaps, perhaps it might be actually quite good. I don’t know. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soundofcobra.tk
NOSESOUL – N (cassette by Collezione Del Silenzio)
MARIBOR – X (cassette by Collezione Del Silenzio)
GIANLUCA BECUZZI – B (cassette by Collezione Del Silenzio)
More releases in the Italian alphabet series. I never heard of Nosesoul (and none of these cassettes have any information), so we have just the music. Nosesoul play some very reduced ambient music, with not a lot of moving sound events. Quite static drone music, with a sort of vaguely rumbling percussive undercurrents. I haven’t quite figured out wether both sides are to be seen as one piece, or two seperate ones, but in either case I thought this was a great release.
Maribor is likewise unknown to me, and his (her?) release is more upfront, even moves into a more louder, at times mildly distorted landscape. I think here we have a bunch of guitars, effects and some keyboards. Dealing less with the notion of ‘silence’ (altough I think that is not a necessary thing for releases per se in this series), this is a more ‘present’ release, but not always for the best. I think some of the ideas are a bit too easy and could have been worked out better.
Gianluca Becuzzi has had various releases of his own and usually in a more ambient/drone/microsound field. Its good to see him move away from that with a somewhat more experimental release. Lots of this seem to evolving around elements from the world of percussion on steel, which reminded me of some of Z’EVs earlier records, in which he used both studio techniques and percussion. This too is a somewhat more noise based release, or at least less ambient and more experimental, but Becuzzi knows how to capture both a fine mood as well as some captivating sounds, and mould that into a fine composition. (FdW)
Address: http://www.silentes.it/tapestry